By Lisa Burgess • Published: 26 Feb 2020 • 16:43
EL PORTET: Protests as excavators return to the marina. Photo credits: Altea town hall
FIVE HUNDRED Altea residents protested about work at the El Portetmarina that is endangering the Costa Blanca town’s volcanic rock at the El Soio cove. They demanded a halt to work and called for the Generalitat to hurry through the cove’s protection as a Geological Monument. One demonstrator, biology professor Joan Piera stressed the importance of the volcanic Cap Negret headland where there is visible evidence of the fragmentation of the super-continent Pangea that formed Europe and Africa. 260 million years ago. The La Olla Residents’ Association read out a manifesto expressing their “stupor and pain” on witnessing the resumption of work marina. The El Portet concessionary Vincelen 2006 won a Supreme Court battle to go ahead with alterations in 2016 and recently brought in heavy machinery to repair damage caused by Storm Gloria and at the same time re-site the entrance. “I understand what people want, which is what I want, to protect the cove, ”Vincelen’s representative Elena Ruano declared. She explained that the marina was originally designed to protect the outcrops of volcanic rock but gave little protection to moored boats in bad weather. “We are taking great care without going beyond the existing perimeter or touching the volcanic rock.” “Nothing will be damaged,” she insisted but emphasised that the company would not renegotiate the concession.
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